ENCINITAS  Evan Kwik’s potent mix of mental illness and heroin abuse was a constant source of terror for his family, who often became the target of his destructive outbursts and suicide threats.

His rage peaked Wednesday, culminating in a 10-hour SWAT standoff at his mother’s Encinitas home that left two sheriff’s deputies wounded and the 22-year-old dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Deputy Colin Snodgrass, 27, who was shot in the knee, and Deputy James Steinmeyer, 31, who was grazed on the forehead, were continuing to recover Thursday and are lucky to have survived, sheriff’s officials said.

The violent confrontation was foreshadowed in a temporary restraining order filed by Kwik’s mother just a week ago, in which she warned that he wants “suicide by cop” and will protect himself with knives and bear spray.

“I truly believe there is a very large chance he will die on his own or maybe take his own life,” Michelle Kwik wrote in the Feb. 14 Vista Superior Court documents. “He is better off in jail than in a grave. Please help me help him.”

When his mother called deputies to her home on Del Rio Avenue Wednesday afternoon, they were expecting him to be armed with the knife or bear spray. Not a shotgun.

Michelle called 911 about 1 p.m. to report her son had come by, upset over the restraining order, and stole her car. The deputies responded, but he wasn’t there. They returned about 3:30 p.m., and so had he.

Kwik hid in the attic of his mother’s house, made threats and refused orders to come out. Deputies fired tear gas into the crawl space to try to put an end to the escalating situation.

Steinmeyer, who was among a group of deputies inside the house, popped his head through the trap door to get a visual on Kwik but couldn’t see him. He looked a second time and was met with shotgun blasts.

Shrapnel struck him on the forehead. Kwik then fired at least five other shots. Rounds sent through the attic floor didn’t find a target, but a shot out of an exterior vent went though a neighbor’s fence and struck Snodgrass in the knee as he held a perimeter on the home.

Another deputy, who had served in the military, dove on top of Snodgrass, protecting the downed deputy with her body. A third deputy who had just received trauma care training cranked down a tourniquet over Snodgrass’ leg to stop the gushing blood.

“It worked. It worked well,” said Encinitas Capt. Robert Haley. “It just chokes you up to see their bravery and how they handle stress. They’re all incredibly calm.”

No deputies returned fire because they couldn’t exactly see Kwik’s location and they didn’t know if there was anyone else inside the home, said homicide Capt. Duncan Fraser.

Members of the Carlsbad police SWAT team were the first crisis negotiators to arrive, and law enforcement officers from around the county responded to the call of “officer down.”

SWAT deputies evacuated neighbors and tried through the night to get Kwik to come out. But he kept making suicidal statements, finally stopping communication. After deploying several flash-bangs and a robot, deputies entered the house about 1:40 a.m. and found him dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. At least 30 unexpended shells were found near his body, investigators said.

Investigators were still determining how Kwik obtained the weapon.

Joe Graciano, a 40-year resident of Del Rio Avenue, said he was in his living room when the deputies surrounded Kwik’s house. He heard shots and then saw a group of deputies carry out a bloodied Snodgrass through his neighboring yard.

Graciano and his wife were then evacuated immediately. When he returned Thursday morning, he found what he believed were bullet holes in his air conditioning unit. Buckshot was recovered in a neighbor’s sofa, authorities said.

Neighbor Zander Johns, 16, said he saw Kwik go downhill over the years as a result of heroin abuse.

“He was a really mellow person ... but I saw him deteriorating,” Johns said. “He had a good heart. It wasn’t completely gone, even on heroin. It was just a little more faint.”

Kwik’s black-tar heroin habit started three years ago, and the high school dropout had twice been committed to a mental hospital, according to the restraining order his mother obtained.

A damaged fence and trellis remained Thursday at the Encinitas house where a 22-year-old man shot two sheriff's deputies the day before. The shooter, Evan Kwik, later committed suicide during a 10-hour standoff.
— Bill Wechter

A damaged fence and trellis remained Thursday at the Encinitas house where a 22-year-old man shot two sheriff's deputies the day before. The shooter, Evan Kwik, later committed suicide during a 10-hour standoff.
— Bill Wechter

In one incident, his mother said, he dumped a mixture of bat and chicken manure over his sister’s bed, clothes and paper because she had cut up his medical marijuana plants. And in July, he smashed his mother’s guitar against a wall, broke framed photos of himself and shouted profanities out of anger that his father was not home, she said.

Kwik’s mother said authorities had refused on some occasions to come to her house to take reports when her son would steal her and her daughter’s cars.

“The police state he wants suicide by cop so they do not want to respond to put both parties at risk,” she wrote.

Her 19-year-old daughter had became so afraid of him that she left home Feb. 2.

Capt. Fraser said there was no record of Kwik ever being booked into jail, but he was held for a psychological evaluation in December after a 911 call reported him being suicidal. In all, deputies have been to the home three times in the past three years, Fraser said, including reports that he’d vandalized the interior.

During a news conference Thursday, Sheriff Bill Gore put out a call for solutions following what he described as unprecedented violence against law enforcement in Southern California over the past few weeks, including the rampage by ex-Los Angeles police Officer Christopher Dorner. With Wednesday’s shootings, four local deputies have been wounded by suspects in the past five months.

“I’m tired of going to hospitals in San Diego County to see if my deputies are going to live or not,” Gore said. “At what point do we have some kind of dialogue and common sense conversations about the violence we are having in our society?”

Gore said the discussion needs to be had at the national level and action taken by elected officials. He supports universal background checks for gun purchases and said the state of mental health services needs to be addressed.

He said that 25 percent of the 5,500 inmates currently in the county’s jails are on some type of psychotropic drug.

Mental health care has become the burden of law enforcement, Gore said, and that’s “a gigantic mistake, and I think we’re paying for it with the violence.”